Infant deaths directly related to preterm births have increased, especially for non-Hispanic black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics.

African-Americans are 2.4 times as likely to die as infants, compared with white newborns. Among white children, the infant-mortality rate rose to 5.73 per 1,000 live births in 2005, compared with 5.66 in the previous year. Overall, the U.S. infant-mortality rate rose to 6.86 per 1,000 in 2005, from 6.78 in 2004, according to the data

Defective signalling of a chemical called serotonin in the brain may be at the root cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), Italian researchers have found.

Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Monterotondo, Italy, genetically modified lab mice to produce low levels of the brain-signalling protein serotonin. After being exposed to slight external temperature changes, the rodents suddenly died because their bodies could not adjust, researchers said

Bacterial infection has been found to be a major factor in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a British study says. Also known as cot death, SIDS is defined as the sudden and unexpected death of an infant aged between a week and a year.

Pediatricians from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London found potentially dangerous bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli in nearly half of all babies who died of SIDS at a London hospital

Smoking in cars with children will be banned in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia starting in 2008, public health officials said Friday.

Beginning in January, smoking will no longer be allowed in vehicles with children under the age of 19

The average American can expect to live to be nearly 77.9 years old, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compiled with data from 2005. Although just a slight increase over 2004 (.1), it is the longest life expectancy reported in the nation's history. Over the past decade, life expectancy has increased from 75.8 years in 1995. In 1955, it stood at 69.6 years.

One trend that has not changed, however, is the disparity among races. Life expectancy for whites in 2005 was at 78.3, while blacks only reached an average of 73.2